


My One and Only You

by Lucky107



Series: The Wanderer [15]
Category: Fallout 3
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Homesickness, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-07 20:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10369059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: Static noise pollutes the quiet night.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I blame the radio that plays The Platters at 3 AM.
> 
> Only You (And You Alone) - The Platters - 1955

Cassidy Bullion hovers over the jukebox she's just put back together, both hands flat on the fluorescent glass that illuminates her troubled expression. The holotape inside switches with a distinct click and static noise pollutes the quiet night.

There's no music.

Like a true professional of her trade, Cassidy opts to give the side of the machine an angry 'thump' in her frustration and it startles her unsuspecting companion.

Butch DeLoria stands up from behind the diner counter. "Somethin' wrong?"

"Nothing," she answers shortly as the first trace of sound filters through the static.

They might be standing in a bombed-out diner in the middle of nowhere, where moonlight pours in through broken windows and a backdrop of stars expands for miles in all directions, but for a moment Cassidy finds herself back in the diner of Vault 101.

Cassidy had spent more time alone in that diner with the old jukebox than she had with everyone else in the Vault combined.

This is the first time that she's actually managed to get one working out here in the wasteland since her exile.

"My father loved this song."

She was only eight years old the first time she stood on the toes of her father's boots and let him spin her around the dark, empty diner. They hadn't spoken all day after a heated argument, so he thought he might make it up to her by teaching her how to dance.

She was only the height of his naval and she clung to his waist as he spun her around and around and around.

And while she never got any better at dancing, that didn't ever stop her father from trying - especially in the aftermath of those arguments that dwarfed the Great War.

Cassidy is lost in the memory of the music when Butch touches her back, careful and kid.

"C'mere," he says.

When Cassidy turns to meet him with stern words of warning on her tongue, he wraps her into his arms and cradles her snug against his chest.

Despite the lapse in time, she's not much taller now than she had been when she was eight years old.

Butch is definitely not her father, but his arms are strong and safe and Cassidy finds herself holding onto his middle just the same as she had once done as they sway in an out-of-time rhythm that the feels just like home.


End file.
